KEYWORDS: Carbohydrate, receptor, nucleic acid drug, targeting, delivery, siRNA.
ABSTRACT: Nucleic acid drugs are emerging into the pharmaceutical mainstream, but realization of their full potential still requires overcoming technical challenges related to delivery and targeting to the relevant cell types.  Carbohydrate-protein interactions are ubiquitous in mammalian cell systems and offer a promising approach to achieving targeted delivery. In particular, exploitation of cell surface endocytic receptors that bind carbohydrate ligands can lead to efficient cellular uptake of nucleic acid drug cargo. Cell selectivity requires incorporation of rationally designed, synthetic carbohydrates into delivery vehicles, examples of which are the focus of this review.


INTRODUCTION
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are on the cusp of making oligonucleotide drugs a mainstream reality.  From antisense to more recent approaches such as siRNA, miRNA, shRNA and triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) (1), never before have there been ...
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